We arrived in Cetraro, and we moored stern to, I did fenders and helped with ropes, it went OK, but I get so anxious it makes my legs shake! 🫨 I get so worried about messing up, then causing damage to the boat, also moving around the boat doing fenders when we are still moving makes me nervous 😬 sailing is definitely not my forte!
Having moored safely, we hosed down the boat, the front lines need a good hose as they are filthy and always leave a mess. Then we did a little recce of the area, finding bins, looking for supermarkets, bars, restaurants etc. Apparently there is a Lidl somewhere but it’s too far away. The marina was a little way out of the town, so we decided to eat at the Marina restaurant later, as we’d had a long sail.
The setting was lovely and we all opted for Pizzas. I ordered one with local sausage, which looked like pepperoni but wasn’t spicy, it was really good. 😊 To be fair we didn’t see much of Cetraro, but that’s how it goes sometimes.
Thursday morning we set off for Maratea. Maratea was a pretty short trip, which meant we arrived with plenty of time to explore. We moored alongside, with lots of help! 😊👍
The marina is in a great spot, with plenty of houses, shops, restaurants and bars nearby. It also had a huge Christ statue up on the hill looking down on the harbour.
We decided to go and have a walk, possibly to the old town, which was supposed to be very quaint and not that far away.
We set off climbing some steps up from the harbour, through the houses. The steps just kept going, up & up, then up some more. Signs saying the town was 300 meters, after 300, then 600 meters it was still saying the same! It was a steep but very pretty walk, with great views. We decided to take a left turn and found ourselves on a main road, which we didn’t want to walk along, luckily we found some lovely steps down through the houses! We kept trying to find the “old town” with no luck! After an hour or so we came back to the harbour! 😃 We didn’t find the old town, but it was a great walk, albeit very steep, which my knees didn’t love. We stopped at a cute bar by the harbour for a well deserved aperitif, Aperol Spritz for Tracey and I and a local beer for Jacques. I love the Italian custom of bringing you nibbles with your drinks, in this case, pizza slices, crisps and nuts!
On the Friday we decided to order a cab to take us up to the ‘Old Town’ I’m so glad we did because it was bloody miles up the hill! Certainly a lot further than 300 meters!😂
The town was fabulous, lots of windy little streets, gorgeous old buildings, fantastic views and just a lovely place to explore. The only down side was that it was very quiet, with very few shops or cafès open.
We explored then stopped in the main square at one of the few places open and had some lunch and some yummy Gelato!
Sitting waiting for our taxi back, we were joined by a guy on a bicycle, he was either, drunk, stoned or both. He stopped in front of me, held up his phone and played me some music, I was trying my best not to engage so he moved across to where Jacques was sitting and started talking 19 to the dozen in heavily accented Italian! Poor Jacques was trying to explain he wasn’t Italian, without much success, he was saved when the guy got distracted by a stray cat 🐈⬛😂 Then luckily our Taxi appeared!
Jacques was tired, so Tracey and I went out for dinner on our own to one of the restaurants on the harbour. It was a beautiful place, great views, great staff, wonderful service but I was a little disappointed with the food. I think part of the problem is the majority of the menu is fish or seafood. The waiter explained that they could do some dishes without. I had the risotto, which was nice, but very salty. Our vegetable starters, one with turnip tops, one with white beans were tasty but a little mushy. They did make up brownie points with the wine and having Fever Tree Tonic water! 😍
Saturday & Sunday we spent in another lovely place called, Camerota. Our never ending quest for decent supermarkets finally hit pay dirt and we found a largeish one not far from the marina. The Italian couple on the boat next to us saw us leaving with the very fancy old lady shopping trolley 😃 and informed us that the shop was shut till 4.30, it was approximately 3pm. I had googled it and it said it was open so we risked it and hey voila! It was open! Happy Days. We stocked up on essentials, wine, fonzies, etc! 😂 we also bought some fresh polpette (meat balls)
After our little excusrsion we were all a bit tired, another longish day, so we eat on the boat.
We walked back into town on Sunday for some lunch, thinking that everywhere would be open, it wasn’t! We luckily found a cute restaurant in the Piazza. The restaurant was great, but again the men was very fish oriented, and the vegetable options were not the best, ok, just not anything special. Jacques had a a prawn pasta dish which he said was fabulous and the wine was delicious so not all bad. The setting was gorgeous.
That evening I began to think about packing!! 😬 I have been out of the UK for just over a year, it feels weird, exciting and a little scary going back. I have been organising things with regard to buying a place and have a few viewings lined up. I still need to decide what I’m doing work wise!
After spending time thinking about all this and getting a bit anxious I decided to watch something on my iPad and got into the BBCs Series, Mr Loverman. The very first few seconds in the first episode features Susan Cardigan singing ‘Hurt so Good’ which was mine & Clint’s wedding song!! It was a fabulous series and Lenny James & Ariyon Bakare fully deserved their BAFTAs for best actor & best supporting actor.
The journey to our next stop, Agripoli was quite bumpy and Jacques was doing things with the sails, which I always find scary. 😦
We moored stern to, which was stressful, especially as we literally ran out of fuel as we were backing in. The spare fuel was deployed and we were able to moor successfully. It was definitely one of the more tricky moorings I’ve had.
Everyone was a bit knackered so we grabbed a pizza and an early night!
Our next stop, Torre Annunziata, is a 6 hour trip, but we are going to add an hour or so to allow us to go along the coast of Positano & Amalfi!
This was lots of fun, we had good weather and seeing these stunning places was amazing. There were so many small boats whipping past us ferrying people between the two places, not to mention the huge big super yacht’s anchored in the bays, with all the fancy toys out! We googled a couple of them and you can rent them for around 350,000 – 450,000 a week!!!! 😳😳 Madness.
Torre Annunziata is not a fancy marina, more working harbour. Mooring Stern to, was OK, especially as a couple of young guys jumped on and did most of it for us! Thank God! 😂
The harbour is directly below Mount Vesuvius, amazing! and only a 6 minute train ride from Pompeii!! This is the reason for being here from Tuesday so that Tracey, Jacques and I get to visit Pompeii before we leave on Thursday. Jacques will then stay in this marina until Tracey gets back in a week.
Our first night I made us some delicious Meatball pasta! 🍝 We were then up earlyish to head to Pompeii.
Pompeii was absolutely incredible! It’s huge! In my head I thought it was a small place, but it’s not. To see so much detail, down to the ruts in the stone roads, caused by the wheels of carts, the frescos in some of the villas, all the amazing buildings, the forum, temples, theatres, even the brothel! Was fantastic.
We were lucky with the weather, sunny, warm but not roasting. It was busy but not manic. I am so thrilled to have been able to visit this incredible place, the first proper tourist thing I’ve done in Italy!
I’d mentioned to my friend Jenna that I was here, she loves volcanos and she told me about Pliny the Youngers letters, which offer a good account of the eruption 🌋. Thanks Jenna.
The trains here are brilliant! Modern, clean, on time and cheap. In fact our trip was better than cheap, as we couldn’t find a ticket kiosk on the way there, or a guard on the train, so it was free! On the way back we were just buying a ticket as the train pulled in and the seller told us to run and buy them in the train, again we couldn’t find anyone. So both ways were free! TBF, this amounts to approx €6 for all 3 of us.😂
We did lots of steps around Pompeii and our feet are aching but we decided head out again, for a last meal in Italy, well for me at least.
We found a lovely restaurant nearby, so not far to walk, thank god!
Had a delicious Pizza a nice glass of wine then back to the boat for an early night.
The chap from the Marina that organised the taxi for us had said the journey to the airport would take approximately 90 mins, so we needed to leave at 6.50am. It’s fair to say that Tracey is not a morning person, so this was not ideal 😂 The frustration came when we arrived at the Naples airport, in busy traffic precisely 30 mins later, at a ridiculous cost of €100! Crazy.
It feels very strange to be boarding a flight back to the UK and finishing my fantastic year of adventures.
I’m excited to be going home to see all my family and friends, desperate to give my beautiful baby girl, Georgia, a massive hug and squeeze her gorgeous face.
It’s been an amazing, wonderful eye opening year, but I feel there are more adventures ahead!
I am very late posting this blog, so I’m now back in the UK! 😍❤️🩵💙💚🩷
Books read.
Demon Copperhead. Barbara Kingsolver. Recommended by Natalie.
Fabulous book.
Hereandthereclaire.com 